I've enjoyed exploring the new and growing world of so-called "workout" pads, as covered in my previous post.
I've learned a few things:
-- First, don't play your "workout" pad a ton. Just a few minutes each morning and evening is plenty, especially if you're a beginning to intermediate drummer. If you play it a lot, you will get really sore hands, fingers and wrists, and you may hurt something that will force you to stop drumming for a little while. Which would be a massive bummer.
-- If you buy a pad you're only going to warm up on twice a day, there is -- or should be -- a pricepoint beyond which nothing makes logical sense. More on that later.
After trying several different makes and models of "workout" pads, I was ready to follow my curiosity and bite the bullet on a Revolution "Chopping Block" pad.
They're hard to miss if you spend any time online. Their ads pop up all over the place and they're endorsed by at least a few famous drummers [below a certain age -- heh heh].
Plus, they're very attractive in appearance.
So I managed to buy a "B-stock" ("blemished") pad at half the price of a new one. Even that was steep at $70.00, but in the interest of science or research or some such whatever, I went for it.
Below is my video assessment of the Revolution "Chopping Block" pad.
Additional comments and opinions follow the video.
As I shared in the video, I did manage to ask a few questions via FB messenger and the answers were slightly less than complete. Since then, Revolution has not returned any emails or further messenger questions. I can't say I'm surprised; I did ask some questions that many manufactureres might find pesky or, at worst, downright damning (depending on context, and context is an awful lot in this business).
So after waiting a few days for further responses and receiving none, I've decided to follow up here:
-- Revolution has designed a very nice and attractive pad that performs as advertised.
I'm putting that up front so folks know that I do NOT have a beef with the quality and performance of the product.
-- The pad is advertised as coming in small batches from a family business in the USA. And they DO make the distinction that the pads are assembled where the company is based (Bend, Oregon). However, when I asked where the various component parts -- the teak base, the silicon and closed-foam playing surfaces -- come from, I was told "Michigan and some other places."
And that is all the info I've gotten to date. I've asked for more detail and have gotten none.
Since then I've done a little more digging. The silicon and closed-foam parts can be made anywhere, and are.
Teak, on the other hand, has some issues:
Teak (Tectona grandis) is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. Tectona grandis has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicles) at the end of the branches. These flowers contain both types of reproductive organs (perfect flowers). The large, papery leaves of teak trees are often hairy on the lower surface. Teak wood has a leather-like smell when it is freshly milled and is particularly valued for its durability and water resistance. The wood is used for boat building, exterior construction, veneer, furniture, carving, turnings, and other small wood projects.[2]
Tectona grandis is native to south and southeast Asia, mainly Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka, but is naturalised and cultivated in many countries in Africa and the Caribbean.
Myanmar's teak forests account for nearly half of the world's naturally occurring teak.[3](Emphasis mine)
(from Wikipedia)
Teak is not something you can just go into the North Woods and chop down for yourself.
Further, the majority of the world's teak is coming from a country whose government engages in human rights abuses and is not officially recognized by multiple other countries.
The carbon footprint and human cost of harvesting and exporting teak is something worth considering when one is making thoughtful and informed purchases. And if one is not thinking about where materials come from to make their favorite products, then you may as well go looking for Truffla Trees instead (hat tip to Dr. Seuss and The Lorax).
I'll leave it to you, dear reader, as to how you ponder your buying choices.
-- The "small batch" part is a bit confusing. Revolution DID begin by selling the pads direct, and they still do. But since that humble start, the pads have now become available through retailers Sweetwater and Chicago Music Exchange. Both of these are big music warehouse retailers that ship all over the country; and neither would be satisfied with getting one or two pads every six to eight weeks.
So some larger economy of scale has to be at work here. And if it is, then one might be inspired to ask, "just what is my $140 paying for, if parts of the manufacturing process are being carried out overseas by underpaid and potentially abused labor?" Because even if the pad were entirely manufactured in the USA, that's still a lot of scratch for a drum practice pad.
So there it is.
I'm mostly not sorry I bought one. Like I said, it's a very nice quality product that performs as advertised.
I AM glad I bought one at half-price; it's worth the couple of tiny gouges in the wood that consigned it to the "blemished" pile.
Would I recommend it to anyone else? Probably not. Not because it sucks -- it doesn't! -- but because there are so many other choices out there whose production causes less harm and whose companies are a bit more transparent about the whole process.
I don't know if I'll keep this pad or not. It doesn't fill any holes in my pad collection or in my drumming practice that aren't already covered by something else, and now that I know what I do about teak and where it comes from — well, that’s the part where I admit I am a tiny bit embarrassed about having bought it.
Carry on.
And happy chopping!
UPDATE: the day after I wrote this blog post, I decided to put this pad up for sale. Thanks to Revolution’s hopped up advertising, I was able to sell it today for the price paid for it.
I am also coming to some new realizations about the whole “workout” pad thing, which I will share later. Drum on!
No comments:
Post a Comment